HECATOMB, in Grecian Antiquity, signifies, according to its etymon, an offering of a hundred oxen. Even before Homer's time, however, the word had lost its strict etymological meaning, and was employed to denote generally a great public sacrifice. Homer himself (Il. vi., 93) talks of a hecatomb of twelve oxen; and again (Il. i., 315), hecatombs of oxen and rams; and even (Il. xxiii., 146) a hecatomb of fifty rams. Later writers used sometimes to reckon even the votive gifts under the hecatomb. (See SACRIFICE.)